Dark Angel of Freedom
by Maileesaeya
Summary: Kira had lost everything. He had no name, no memory, no identity. No life, before they found him drifting in the final battlefield and offered him a new home. But when disaster strikes, he sets out with new friends to cry out for a changed world... and their voice shall be heard as the world stands, watching and listening in awe of the Animus and their Dark Angel of Freedom...


**Well, here it is. After more than two years, I finally have the first chapter of the retooled _Dark Angel of Freedom_ done. What took so long? Well... lot's of things, including some massive real life challenges that are still affecting me. But enough about me.**

**I really enjoyed Tellemicus Sundance's _Gundam SEED Destiny: Kira_. It had a good premise and was an interesting take on one of the most squandered entries in the Gundam Franchise. So much potential, so much _ruin_. To this day, a decade later, a part of me still seethes a bit over it all. But that's not important right now. Here's what is important: _Dark Angel of Freedom_ utilizes the premise of an amnesiac hero to rewrite SEED Destiny. Hopefully the results will be enjoyable for all involved. I know I've been looking forward to this, and I'm quite happy with what I've got done so far on this retool. The main hurdles in this chapter shouldn't apply too heavily to subsequent chapters, so maybe I can catch it back up in good time. More worrisome is managing my time with all the stories I've been working on, especially since I'd like to get _Naruto: Bloodlines_ knocked out so that I can simply wash my hands of it. :P**

**Anyways, with special thanks to Tellemicus Sundance for his permission to use the premise and all his help on this whole ordeal, let the show begin!**

**Disclaimer: All standard disclaimers apply. For now, I own all OCs in this story and nothing else.**

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**Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny**  
Dark Angel of Freedom  
Story By: Maileesaeya  
_Phase One: My name is…_

Complete, utter, inconceivably dark blackness surrounded him. Where was he? How did he get here? Why was he here? To the darkness, he asked these questions, and from the darkness, he received no answer. Then, slowly, a noise came to him, starting as a whisper that gradually grew louder.

"_How do you determine the winners and the losers?_"

A voice? From who, and where? It sounded male, and there was a definite note of iron in that tone.

"_If you have the power to make a difference, why not put it to good use?"_

Another voice?

"_Everyone's fighting desperately to protect the things that are so important to us!"_

"_But you're already a traitor to your fellow Coordinators, are you not?"_

"_What gives you the right to sound so __**superior?!**__"_

"_You are the dream of humanity."_

"_There would be no wars in this world if things could be resolved through discussion."_

"_**NICOL!**__"_

"_You soldiers wanna be cowards and runaway, do ya?!"_

"_The enemy's beside the bridge! Get back here!"_

"_It really makes you wonder if the only option is for one of us to destroy each other."_

"_We know the reason why you're kind. It's because you are you."_

Emotions he didn't understand the reasons behind were attached to those voices. They flooded through him with all the force and power of a tsunami. Confusion, fear, anger, helplessness, joy, regret, affection, the list was nearly endless. But the voices… so many voices saying so many things all at once! Stop it. It hurt to know what was said, yet completely fail to understand it at all! Stop! Make them stop!

Eventually, the voices softened to a dull noise. Then, at some point, they stopped altogether, leaving him emotionally numb as he continued to float aimlessly through the blackness. It was a blackness that he happily surrendered himself to, before a final whisper echoed through the darkness with the voice of an angel.

"_Wouldn't it be nice… if we could stay like this… forever?"_

KIRA - **Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny** - KIRA

**Former Jachin Due Airspace, 71 C.E.**

A graveyard; that was the one word that came to Sarah Hartman's mind as she looked out at the debris field surrounding the _Valkyrie_, blue eyes shifting across the viewport, taking it all in. The remains of hundreds, even thousands, of mobile suits, mobile armors, and warships floated out there, their pilots and crews lost to the mysterious grip of death and the unknown. How one would treat this battlefield would vary as wildly as one's belief and attitudes.

In Sarah's case, it was with a great deal of respect that this battlefield should be viewed and treated, and that attitude extended to the rest of the _Valkyrie_'s crew, if only because she wouldn't have let those who would disrespect this place aboard her ship in a million years.

However, that did not stop them from being perfectly willing to pillage the leftovers. They were scavengers, plain and simple, it was how they survived. More to the point, it was an essential duty to their home.

The _Valkyrie_ was the effective flagship of the makeshift militia fleet of the Eden colony, a forgotten remnant of a bygone era now hidden amidst the debris littering the Earth Sphere. However, Eden had managed to live up to its namesake by being a virtual paradise as one of the only places on Earth or in space to not be caught up in the bloody conflict of the last two years. It was home to a small population of Naturals and Coordinators alike who just wanted to escape the chaos and racism that had permeated the world, especially in the years after the S2 Crisis.

However, no matter how much you isolated yourself, no matter how well you hid yourself, someone would stumble on you. That was the reason Eden maintained a small defensive fleet capable of battering your average scavenger, pirate or mercenary into dust, and keeping the strength of that fleet as high as possible was the reason they were here now, pillaging the debris field that had once been the defensive airspace of the resource satellite-turned-space fortress Jachin Due.

Letting out a faint sigh, Sarah pushed herself out of her seat and over to the tactical display on the starboard side. It wasn't the standard tactical display for an _Agamemnon_-class carrier like the _Valkyrie_, but it was better than those normally used by the militaries of both sides, and just one of many features they'd modified from the base design as they rebuilt the broken hull of the warship originally recovered from the debris belt.

_Why_ it was that both ZAFT and the Alliance (and everyone else for that matter) used a two-dimensional table display instead of a three-dimensional holographic display was beyond her; her best guess was cost, and she supposed it served well for mapping the Earth Sphere, seeing as there was no sane reason for vessels to move off the moon's orbital plane, since the Lagrange Points sat on that plane and there was nothing meaningful to head to outside of it, so movement off that plane would just be a waste of power. Still, the two-dimensional tactical display system baffled her.

Sarah studied the jumbled mess that was the tactical display, the holographic projection showing a cube of space around the _Valkyrie_ out to a radius of twenty kilometers—an eight thousand cubic kilometer zone. Much of the debris had already been reduced to mere scrap metal by collisions, which is what the sensors primarily picked up, though the display mostly filtered that out.

At the center of the display, the _Valkyrie_ was visible as not much more than a tiny, wedge-shaped model, distinct only for its location in the grid and the fact that it was blinking blue. Two other distinct blinking images were the _Asgard_, a _Laurasia_-class frigate rebuilt with two extra hangar pods replacing the "wings" on the side, and the _Midgard_, a transport of the retired _Tellemicus_-class that would be getting most of their salvage shoved into it by their mobile suits, though the _Asgard_'s extra hangar pods were likewise getting filled with junk.

To say they were pulling a very dangerous stunt here would've been an understatement—if they were discovered, they'd likely have fleets from both sides bearing down on them in short order, and the _Asgard_ and _Midgard_ would be forced to self-destruct in order to preserve Eden's secrecy; the _Valkyrie_ alone could escape in that situation, as it was equipped with the vaunted mirage colloid stealth technology, acquired through a contact in the Orb Union-based Morgenroete Incorporated.

"Report," said Sarah, glancing away from the display to the main viewport and the overwhelming field of debris before looking back to the tactical display and quickly dialing it down to display the immediate search areas of the three ships.

"Well, we've gotten an impressive haul," reported Nanami Ayabito, stretching her arms over her head without leaving her seat at the comm. station. "The most recent find of interest is what seems to be a prototype or custom mobile suit—they think it might even be the Forbidden. Most of what's left is the backpack though…"

"I see," said Sarah. "But what about the others?"

"The _Asgard_ is more or less the same," said Nanami. "The _Midgard_ is likewise mostly the same, though the last report mentioned something about a really strange shield with a severed mobile suit arm inside of it."

"Gotcha," murmured Sarah. She shook her head slightly as she looked at the virtually unarmed transport on the display. "Looks like the _Midgard_ is on the edge of the GENESIS region; go ahead and tell them to pull back, it's more exposed there and there's not as much salvage."

"Yes ma'am," said Nanami before quickly calling up a comm. link to the transport. "_Midgard_, you're moving too far out. You need to pull back from the GENESIS… what did you say?!"

Heads all over the _Valkyrie_ bridge snapped up at Nanami's sudden change in tone.

"What?" demanded Sarah. "What is it?"

"One moment ma'am," said Nanami distractedly. "_Midgard_, repeat that. Are you _certain_?" There was a moment of silence before Nanami slowly turned her attention to Sarah, a look of disbelief on her face. "They found… ma'am, I can hardly believe it, but they say they've found a heavily damaged mobile suit frame that they've identified as the remains of the Freedom."

Silence followed that statement for a moment… before the bridge crew suddenly erupted with small squeals and whoops of excitement as several of them—mainly those with nothing to do right now—rushed from their stations to crowd around Nanami.

"Are they serious?" "You're sure that's what they said?" "The Freedom, the actual Freedom! I can't believe it!"

"Enough!" shouted Sarah as she herself recovered from the news. "Everyone, back to your stations! If it _is_ the Freedom, you can admire the wreck when we get home!" Just a bit more scared of their captain's wrath than they were awed by the treasure trove of power, technology and hope represented by that near-mythical machine, everyone did as told, scurrying back to their stations under Sarah's watchful glare. Nanami let out a sigh of relief, shooting the captain a thankful glance.

With a sigh of her own, Sarah floated back to her seat, settling in place and buckling in.

For the next few minutes, the bridge was silent as they continued their salvage operations; it occurred to Sarah that she hadn't reiterated the order to move deeper into the field she'd had Nanami issuing the _Midgard_, but it would probably take them a few minutes to bring in their new salvage.

Suddenly, Nanami let out a faint gasp, turning to face Sarah.

"Captain, Amy reports that they've found a survivor!"

Sarah straightened up slightly, looking to Nanami with shock just barely tingeing her features.

"A survivor?" she muttered. She looked back out the viewport. "Who could survive for days out here…?" Shaking her head, she looked back to Nanami. "If she hasn't already done so, tell Amy to bring him in."

"Yes ma'am," said Nanami, turning back to her console. "Amy?" A pause as she listened to the pilot. "You're already bringing the survivor back to the _Midgard_? Okay, good. As soon as you've done so, help bring the Freedom aboard. _Midgard_, as soon as you have the Freedom in storage and the survivor aboard, you're to retreat from the GENESIS area and back to the main debris field."

KIRA - **Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny** - KIRA

How long had he lain in the complete, utter blackness? Hours? Days? Weeks?

Years?

He didn't know; there was no sense of space, no sense of time… nothing but an endless void. Being trapped there would quickly drive anyone mad, but he couldn't even think, his mind as empty as the void in which he floated. There was nothing—nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to touch, to taste, to smell.

Nothing.

So it was quite jarring when _something_ suddenly pierced that raw emptiness—his mind was blank, and he wouldn't remember most of this, but the light that suddenly shattered the void was something he would remember vividly for years to come.

He didn't know where the light came from or what it was, but it was just the precursor to everything else as his senses were flooded—a sterile smell filled his nostrils and mouth, weariness flooded his body, his eyes suddenly seemed to burn for just an instant and an incessant beeping filled his ears.

All of this struck him at once, so forcefully that he nearly fell back into the void at the suddenness of it all, but the moment of clarity passed and with it the threat of sinking back into oblivion.

Now, his senses, his thoughts, the world around him faded into existence much more steadily, and with them, a weariness in his body that he couldn't quite understand.

"Captain, he's waking up," said a nearby voice, the sound further piercing the darkness that surrounded him.

He felt a brief flash of panic at that, wondering if the voices from before were back before suddenly realizing that no, this was different. This voice wasn't an echo in the void, but something more physical and real. Something about that comforted him, making him seize on the sensation, bringing his awareness to a light beyond his eyes, previously shut against the void.

Slowly, he cracked open his eyes, only to be blinded by the light beyond, causing him to squeeze them shut again and jerk his eye to the side, away from the apparent source.

"Welcome back to the land of the living kid," said the voice from earlier, now much clearer to him. As it spoke, a hand grabbed his jaw and gently turned it back straight as another hand gently cracked open his eyes one at a time. "I'm Doctor Reaves. How are you feeling?"

"I… not… well," he choked out, the world starting to spin again as he spoke.

"That doesn't surprise me at all kid," said Reaves gently as he finally released the boy's jaw and picked up a clipboard to survey. "Given what your body had been through before we found you, I'm honestly surprised that you even survived out there for as long as you did."

"What… are you… talking… about?" he asked, voice cracking slightly as he glanced around at his surroundings. He was in some kind of infirmary, an IV stuck into his arm, resting on an uncomfortably stiff bed with a worn-out pillow.

"Easy now," said Reaves, stepping over to the bed with a container in hand and gently lifting his patient's head as he held the straw from the container up to his lips. "You must be thirsty. We've gotten new fluid into you, but that's no substitute for a good sip of water." Getting the message, he starting drinking, taking big gulps of water, only stopping when he suddenly had to gasp for air, which was a lot less painful now that his throat was no longer quite so dry.

"There, that's better," said Reaves, setting aside the container. "Now, as for what happened, our guess is that your mobile suit was badly damaged during the battle and you were forced to eject yourself into space to escape the explosion." As he spoke, the doctor walked over to a cabinet and started rummaging through it for something. "I have no idea how long you were drifting out there, but I do know you'd exhausted your pilot suit's air supply. When we found you, you'd fallen unconscious from lack of oxygen, and it's nothing short of a miracle that you survived like that out in space for two days alone. Especially without drifting into the sun and just getting cooked outright."

"Mobile suit?" the patient asked, trying futilely to understand what the doctor was talking about. He was pretty sure he knew what that was, but at the same time, he couldn't recall anything like that. Or for that matter…

"You don't remember?" asked Reaves, glancing over the brunet teen, though he looked unsurprised. "I see. I was afraid of that. Well, we found you drifting in the battlefield of Jachin Due. We assumed you were the pilot of an Earth Alliance mobile suit; you were wearing their standard issue pilot suit after all. Not ringing any bells?"

"…Sorry," he said quietly as he tried to sit up. "I… don't remember… anything."

A sudden bout of nausea swept through him and forced him to retreat back to the pillow that his head had just vacated. He had only just managed to settle his empty stomach through sheer force of will. So lost in the throes of suppressing his sudden need to vomit, he didn't even notice the doctor walk up to him and inject him with a syringe.

"Try not to move too much just yet," said Reaves as he gently withdrew the needle. "Your body still needs to readjust and you're still too weak. You need some more rest. Those sedatives I just gave you should help you with that."

"Where am I?" he asked, feeling a bit more balanced and alert now.

"Currently you're onboard a… oh, let's say a freelance salvage vessel, for lack of a better term, called the _Valkyrie_," answered Reaves with the slightest hint of uncertainty. After all, they'd never been in a situation like this and if he wasn't careful, he could reveal too much about them to someone who may not stick around for very long. "We're headed for an old colonial outpost to give you some better medical attention. Our arrival time is somewhere within the next three hours. You've been unconscious since we found you four days ago."

"Four days?" repeated the patient, not at all surprised. "I guess that's why…"

"Why what?"

"Nothing, forget about it," he said quietly as he tried to recall why he had such trouble remembering what he'd been dreaming while unconscious.

"By the way, young man," said Reaves as he turned and headed for a desk on the other side of the room. "What's your name? We couldn't find any identification or anything else when we found you, just this ring."

"Ring?" he repeated, utterly confused.

Digging through a drawer, the doctor quickly withdrew something and returned to the bedside. Floating loosely in his hand on a chain necklace was a silver ring with a gentle, flowing wave-like pattern that circled its length. The simple design of it seemed to scream out that it had once belonged to a girl. It was both elegant and plain at the same time.

Without realizing his own actions, his uninhibited hand was reaching out to grasp the delicate looking artifact and examine it more closely. In doing so, he noticed a pair of letters scratched into the underside of it. _L.C_. Who was that? Perhaps the girl who'd given it to him? Or had he merely found it on the ground somewhere?

Looking back up at the doctor, he blinked slightly in confusion as he tried to search his memory for the answer to the first question. He knew he should've remembered. He knew he had a name, and that he belonged somewhere with someone. But all he could find in his memory was that all-consuming blank void that had been haunting him for the past few days.

"I… don't remember, doctor," he said slowly, as though to confirm it to himself as well as Reaves. "All I do remember is… nothing, nothing at all of who I am… or was."

"…I see," was all the response he got. Not that he was really paying attention anymore anyway.

KIRA - **Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny** - KIRA

**Eden Colony**

Jessica Swan stood next to the bed of the sleeping teenager the scavenging fleet had found amidst the debris of the Second Battle of Jachin Due. She had a prominent frown etched on her soft and gentle features as she stared at the boy. It was a little after midday on the colony and the sunlight reflected to the interior by its mirrors shone gently through the windows as Jessica quietly observed the still form of the brunet boy she guessed to be around the same age as her eldest daughter.

She'd never really been one to believe much in the concept of living John Does, yet here was this boy, living and breathing but with no identity he was aware of, lying on the bed before her. He was a mobile suit pilot, which was about all they knew for sure, the Earth Forces pilot suit he'd worn and being a Coordinator leaving absolutely no doubt on that detail. Doctor Joshua Reaves didn't doubt the boy's claim to total amnesia either; his report noted that there had been some brain damage from oxygen deprivation, well within their ability to heal, but that wasn't the same as undoing the affects of the damage and he was lucky to not be a total vegetable as it was. Still, with nothing to identify him but that ring, they were left with only two choices, and while Jessica would happily welcome the boy to Eden with open arms, it didn't mean she wasn't going to at least pursue the other choice so that their patient could have his own choice, and so they were left to perform record searches almost completely in the dark.

So when the _Valkyrie_ had returned to Eden they'd immediately put the colony's resident hacker, Kaede Shigemitsu, to work and she'd been pretty thorough: first going on the assumption that someone was still looking for him, Kaede had checked all records she could find for individuals in his age group, Natural or Coordinator, reported as MIA in the time period around the Second Battle of Jachin Due in the Earth Alliance, then switched to checking for those marked KIA. She'd turned up nothing that could match their John Doe, expanded her search and, when that turned up nothing useful, switched to the ZAFT battlenet. It was, predictably, more difficult to break into, but turned up a lot more false positives once she did. She eventually narrowed it down to a handful of potential candidates to check more thoroughly, before quickly ruling out all of them as well.

However, even Kaede wasn't willing to try and tackle the majority of civilian records, only examining the military files she could access in neutral nations such as Orb and then checking, at Sarah's suggestion, the records on the Heliopolis recovery effort, but she only got a few false positives from the records of civilians rescued from Heliopolis by Orb.

Given her complete inability to find anything despite the boy's obvious military ties from his pilot suit and recovery location, Kaede had concluded that someone had probably erased his records, suggesting that he might've had ties to an Earth Forces black ops group, given how unusual it would've been for a Coordinator to be with the Earth Forces at the time of Jachin Due.

The notion disturbed Jessica quite a bit.

"How long are you going to stare at me, sir?" asked the "sleeping" boy suddenly, a small smile pulling at his face.

"Oh? You're awake," said Jessica, smiling slightly. "I prefer 'ma'am' or 'miss' though."

"Miss then," said the boy, eyes opening to reveal bright amethyst orbs. "Who are you, Miss?"

"My name's Jessica Swan," she said evenly. "I'm the leader of this colony. Some of my people have been trying to find out who you are for the past few hours, but we've had no luck so far. Kaede thinks someone erased you from records for some reason… or that the records may never have existed in the first place."

"I see," was all the boy said as he stared up at the tiled ceiling of the hospital room. "So, I'm a nobody after all."

Not liking the teenager's saddened expression, Jessica frowned, coming to a quick decision on what to do. Patting the boy's shoulder in an affectionate manner normally reserved for her children, she gave him a small smile as he looked at her questioningly.

"The only person who's a nobody is someone who doesn't have the will to live life to the fullest and seek out all that they have lost and may yet gain," said Jessica warmly. "Don't tell me that you really don't have the will to live after you survived the impossible."

The curiosity was momentarily overridden by a look of pure steel in those amethyst eyes and that small frown he now wore.

Taking the expression for an answer, Jessica continued, "As long as you possess the will to live, you will never be anything or anybody but yourself."

"You're right," he muttered, "but who should I be?"

"Hmm… how about… Hikaru Kirishima?"

"What?" he muttered, hard gaze softening immediately in his confusion.

"I had a friend known as Hikaru Kirishima," said Jessica. "He had a will to live made of solid steel, not giving up for anything. I can see that same steel in your eyes. I'm sure he'd consider you more than worthy to carry his name."

"I see," he said with a bit of uncertainty. "Hikaru… Kirishima." As he spoke the words, his voice grew firmer, a small smile forming on his lips as he decided the name felt right to him. "Yes… my name is… Hikaru Kirishima."

KIRA - **Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny** - KIRA

**Eden Colony  
A day later, 7:23 AM**

She'd been staring at it for several minutes and, being frank, Miyuki Evans was thoroughly unimpressed with the wreck that had once been the Freedom, which was quite disappointing for her. She knew, of course, that the stories were probably just exaggerations, real events blown out of proportion and given a mythical feel in order to grab attention. Still, she'd been in awe of the Freedom, making this whole experience a bit of a letdown.

Of course, Miyuki seemed to be the only one feeling that way—many of the others were babbling half-incoherently, Kaede was beside herself with excitement as she ripped apart the surviving software and Jacob Turner, Eden's chief mechanic, was giddy as an entire gaggle of schoolgirls discussing hot boys.

"Alright, I think that's enough gawking," she called, staring pointedly at Jacob. "Jessica wanted this thing thoroughly dissected and I think we all want to see it put back together. It'd be best to get to work."

There were a few grumbles of discontent before everyone did as she'd told. Not that Miyuki had anything even resembling authority here, outranked within what passed for colonial leadership by Kaede, Jacob and several others present, to say nothing of Jessica, Joshua or any of the ship captains, but everyone knew that she had a point about Jessica's orders.

"You can skip helping out yourself though," said Kaede, looking up from her computer station, the motion tossing her knee-length black hair in the colony wind slightly. "Jessica apparently wants you at the hospital to play guide for our John Doe."

"Oh, of course it would be me," grumbled Miyuki, rubbing her temples. Then again, she supposed she wasn't complaining since, while she knew her way around mobile suit maintenance, she wasn't a full-out mechanic and would likely just be playing errand girl if she stayed. "Alright, I'll head over there immediately."

"He'll need quite a bit of explanation," said Kaede. "But no flirting with him before the rest of the girls have gotten a chance to take a look at him."

"That's not funny Kaede," hissed Miyuki slightly. She had a mild case of androphobia and the hacker damn well knew it. It may not have been anything severe, but it was enough that she was sometimes uncomfortable even around men she knew well and, while generally not outright afraid, pretty uncomfortable with strangers. Jessica had made it her personal mission to help Miyuki get over it, which was the most likely reason for this assignment.

KIRA - Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

**Hospital, a few minutes later**

Hikaru stared out the window of his hospital room, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Despite his amnesia, he still seemed to retain his preexisting knowledge, so that was something to be grateful for. After his talk with Jessica and receiving his new name, he'd had another meeting with Reaves, during which the doctor had explained in more detail what had happened to him. Reaves had emphasized that the Hikaru's chances of ever recovering his lost memories were less than one in a million before leaving the young man on his own to consider things.

That led him to this particular moment, staring out the window and trying to figure out what, exactly, the view meant. Outside his window were several buildings and roads before they suddenly came to an end, giving way to lush grass, with a cluster of trees visible off to one side, a few ponds and even a small lake. Beyond all of that, a sudden wall, stretching into the sky and ending somewhere Hikaru couldn't see from his room. He knew that he was in space, on a colony of some sort, but he couldn't recall what the design was at all.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," he called absent-mindedly as he turned away from the window. The door opened and a teenage girl stepped inside.

She was tall and thin, with long arms and legs, wide hips, a modest bust and gentle, almost shy facial features, simply dressed with blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a black hair band. What was eye catching about her, though, was her hip-length silver-grey hair and her striking but downcast green eyes.

"Good morning," she said softly.

"Morning," said Hikaru, giving her a weak smile.

"I'm Miyuki," she continued, voice still soft and still refusing to meet his eyes. "Miyuki Evans. I was asked to be your guide for a bit."

"Ah, I see," he said. "I'm grateful. I'm… well, Hikaru Kirishima now."

Miyuki gasped, eyes suddenly snapping onto Hikaru's own as they widened in shock.

"What was that?"

"Um… I said that I'm now Hikaru Kirishima," he said. Miyuki seemed to tremble a bit at that, so he rushed forward, "It was Miss Swan's idea. She said that she thought I'd be able to live up to the name of her friend, so she asked if I'd like it."

"Is that so…" Miyuki's troubled expression wasn't totally gone, but she seemed to have grown thoughtful as well. "I see. I wonder if that's why she wanted me here…"

"Um… I'm sorry," said Hikaru. "Did I offend you somehow…?"

"Ah, well… it's a bit of a long story," said Miyuki. "But the short version is that Hikaru Kirishima was the man who brought me here."

"Oh! I, um, see," he said, scratching the back of his head nervously. Talk about awkward.

They were silent for several minutes before Miyuki shook her head and spoke up.

"Anyways, we should probably get started on the tour," she said. "Would you like to change first?"

Hikaru glanced down at himself before shrugging—a nurse had shown up some time after Reaves left with a pile of clothes in approximately his size, and he'd settled on a simple combination of jeans and a black t-shirt when he woke up. As far as he was concerned, what he was wearing now would be fine.

"Alright then, follow me please," said Miyuki. Nodding, Hikaru did as told, initially staying close as she led him out of the hospital, but then stepping back a bit when he suddenly realized that she was uncomfortable with his proximity. It only took about a minute to reach the exit anyway, emerging into a small city. Hikaru had to shield his eyes a bit against the sudden brightness.

"Welcome to the Garden of Eden," murmured Miyuki softly.

Hikaru blinked, lowering his hand a bit as his eyes adjusted to the brighter setting. Sidewalks, concrete roads, a few large buildings here or there, but for the most part the buildings were small, with houses clearly visible within easy walking distance and a few apparent apartment complexes that made up the bulk of the larger buildings, though there were at least two obvious office buildings and what looked almost like a bunker.

Perhaps more obvious, though, was the massive pillar stretching skyward and the single circular wall surrounding him.

"What is this place?" he asked.

"Eden was a prototype PLANT," said Miyuki, following Hikaru's gaze. "It was basically the original PLANT, but smaller scale—the disk is eight kilometers across and instead of a second disk we're anchored to an asteroid." She brushed a loose strand of silver hair out of her face. "We use the asteroid as a resource mine and port facility—our fleet is docked over there and we keep the bulk of our mobile weapons and spacecraft over there as well."

"I see," said Hikaru, glancing around a bit.

"The city itself takes up only about a tenth of the space on Eden's disk," continued Miyuki. "It's almost entirely located on one side of the central shaft, and space is divided between a park, our handful of military facilities on the disk, the city itself, a small industrial zone and what is basically a nature preserve with a forest, lake and a special garden. That about sums it up in general terms."

Hikaru blinked slightly, suddenly coming to the realization of how much Miyuki had said, all her awkwardness and discomfort disappearing for a moment.

"You're… passionate about this place, aren't you?" he asked, staring at her. Turning slightly to meet his gaze, only to quickly glance away in discomfort, she nodded slowly.

"This place is my home," she said. "I… lost my original one and Hikaru—the first Hikaru—saved me and brought me here. Eden means a lot to me."

"I understand," said Hikaru, looking away in the hopes that doing so would ease her discomfort.

"Anyways, let me show you around," said Miyuki quickly. "There's not a whole lot to see and nothing's very far away. Plus, physical activity will be good for you after your ordeal."

"Yeah, sure thing," said Hikaru.

KIRA - **Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny** - KIRA

**Several hours later**

Miyuki was a bit surprised at herself. She'd honestly expected that she'd have excused herself from Hikaru's presence by now, but he was… different. Maybe it was his lack of memory and identity somehow making him seem less threatening. Maybe it was that he carried that name of the man she'd thought of as a surrogate father.

Or… maybe it was that he reminded her all too clearly of her brother. Regardless, she'd quickly found herself comfortable in his presence, which was a feeling she hadn't had in years.

Perhaps that was why she'd chosen to conclude his tour of the colony here.

"This is my home," said Miyuki softly, tucking a loose lock of silver hair behind her left ear as she stared at the house with Hikaru. It was one of Eden's Japanese-style houses with a wall surrounding it and a garden with a small stream inside the wall. It wasn't large by any means, but there was a reason for that… "I've lived here on my own ever since my father died."

"I see… I'm sorry," said Hikaru. Miyuki shook her head.

"It's not like it's your fault," she said. "Anyways, I think I've shown you just about everything I'm allowed to, and we've been walking for awhile. We should probably head back to the hospital—I'm sure you must be exhausted."

"It's not that bad," he said, but Miyuki was undeterred, walking away from her house and back towards the hospital, which was about a ten minute walk away.

"You don't have anywhere else to stay anyways," said Miyuki, "and as I said earlier, it wouldn't be a good idea to accept any of the invitations you got earlier until you feel a bit more settled in." Especially given that most of the invitations had been extended in jest by people the two had encountered during the tour—though Miyuki was more leery of the ones that had been made seriously, as Lisa Calhoun delighted in being a flirtatious tease.

"Yeah, I guess I can understand that," said Hikaru, who could at least privately admit to being overwhelmed by everything and, as Miyuki had guessed, more than a little tired.

The two walked in silence to the hospital after that, only coming to a stop when they reached the entrance, where Jessica, Joshua and Kaede were waiting.

"Welcome back," said Jessica with a small smile. Kaede was beaming widely as she rushed over to Miyuki and quickly grabbed her in a mock hug.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you, giving such a wondrous tour to someone you must absolutely hate!" she said overenthusiastically.

"Kaede!" cried Miyuki, breaking out of the hacker's grip.

"Um…" Hikaru scratched the back of his head uncertainly.

"Ah yes," said Jessica, stepping forward. "Hikaru, allow me to introduce you to Kaede Shigemitsu. She's been searching for information on you."

"Yeah, but I haven't had any luck," said Kaede, finally stopping her playful harassment of Miyuki, who shook herself as if the hacker had dumped a jar of ants over her. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," said Hikaru as he studied her. "Really, it is." Standing next to Miyuki, he couldn't help but be struck by the contrast between them. Kaede was also pretty tall with long legs and arms, wide hips and small breasts, but her knee-length hair was a deep black and she had dark brown eyes. It was weird, really—Miyuki and Kaede had nearly identical bodies, very different (if equally pretty) facial features, but Miyuki had a healthy brown-white skin tone and bright hair and eyes, while Kaede had pale skin and dark hair and eyes. Even their wardrobes contrasted sharply, with Miyuki's white t-shirt and blue jeans versus Kaede's flowing black dress.

He shook his head slightly, resisting the urge to ask if the two were related somehow or maybe just liked being a contrasting pair.

"Well, I was just coming by to check on you two," said Jessica. "It's a relief to see that you're doing fine. Miyuki, I'd like for you to come by the office tomorrow—there's something I need to talk to you about. Hikaru, you keep resting and don't overexert yourself, understood?"

"Yes ma'am," said Hikaru, tone a bit more professional than normal. It might've caught some of them off-guard if not for the fact that they figured him as an ex-soldier.

"Come on Kaede, we still need to discuss the data you recovered," said Jessica as she walked away, the hacker following in her wake.

"Well Hikaru, at a glance you seem fine, but I'll be doing one last checkup before turning in," said Joshua. "I'll meet you in your room in a few minutes." With that, he headed into the hospital, leaving Hikaru and Miyuki alone again. The latter promptly blew out a heavy sigh.

"That Kaede, I swear…" she muttered.

"She seems… fond of you," offered Hikaru. Miyuki shook her head with a slight smile.

"She's just surprised really," she said. "No doubt she expected me to run screaming within an hour of coming to get you."

"Why's that?" asked Hikaru, genuinely confused.

"Well… that's a long story," said Miyuki. "It can wait for another time. For now, I need to be off. We'll talk more later."

"Okay… sure thing. See you later."

Miyuki hesitated for a second.

"And Hikaru? If you want to come by my house to visit… feel free to, anytime."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** **So, how did you all like it? This retool vastly shifted the colony Kira's retrieved by, the resources at their disposal, and even the majority of the characters involved, with only Miyuki and Kaede retained, and even then with some shifts to their characters and appearance. Also, because the original first chapter was so short, I combined it with the second, and also changed Kira's new name to Hikaru Kirishima. Some of you might recognize the name, and others might realize where I got it from.**

**So, with this establishing chapter out of the way, I've laid the groundwork for what I want the later chapters to become. For now, we're going to follow Kira/Hikaru in his interactions with the Eden colonists. Other changes from the original version? I'm not sure, but probably not _too_ many, at least for these early chapters. Mostly, I wanted to rework the colony, Miyuki and Kaede a bit, and bring the early stuff more in line with what the story became.**

**Now, a lot of you are probably thinking "Where's Lacus?" Well, I'll get to her. Please be patient, I have a lot going on in my life right now. Same story for a lot of other "obvious questions," like what kinds of character changes, why, will the "Ghost Fleet" incident remain, what about the big incident that started Chapter 5 of the original, and so on.**

**Wait, it was just me wondering what happened in Chapter 5? ... Uh oh... :P**

**Anyways, please leave a review and tell me what you think! I hope you all enjoyed, and I look forward to continuing this story!**

**Sayōnara, min'na desu!**


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